|
The Labour Day Classic is a particular week of the Canadian Football League schedule that is played over the Labour Day weekend (which includes the first Monday in September.) Labour Day weekend, roughly 10 weeks into the CFL season, is known for its matchups that do not change from year to year, unlike other "rivalry" weeks of the CFL schedule (with the exception of the BC–Montreal game which took place during the absence of Montreal's traditional rival Ottawa; both the Rough Riders and Renegades played in it.) Labour Day weekend is also only one of two weeks (the Thanksgiving Day Classic being the other) in the CFL schedule that the league plays on a Monday. Mark's Work Wearhouse is the presenting sponsor of the event as of 2014. ==History== The traditional Labour Day weekend matchups involve the Winnipeg Blue Bombers visiting the Saskatchewan Roughriders on the day before Labour Day, while on Labour Day itself, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are at home against the Toronto Argonauts while the Edmonton Eskimos visit the Calgary Stampeders. The Montreal Alouettes face the Ottawa Redblacks to round out the weekend. The BC Lions have no Labour Day rivals and have had a bye week on Labour Day in the past. Because Ottawa had no active team from 2006 to 2013, the Alouettes usually played the Lions during those seasons, creating a "coast-to-coast" rivalry; also during these times, the Alouettes received an annual home game in the Thanksgiving Day Classic in most of these years (Montreal still hosts Thanksgiving contests even after Ottawa's re-establishment). During the early 1980s, the Montreal Concordes instead played the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as their Labour Day rival instead of the Ottawa Rough Riders. Due to scheduling conflicts, the Tiger-Cats temporarily revived its rivalry with the current incarnation of the Alouettes in the Labour Day game for the 2011 season; the change in opponents led Hamilton to dub the game the ''Labour Day Classique'' in reference to Montreal's francophone community.〔(Gameday: The Labour Day Classique ).〕〔(From a purely football angle, this Labour Day Classique should be a good one ). ''Hamilton Spectator''. Retrieved September 5, 2011.〕 While in 2011, this automatically resulted in Toronto and BC facing each other, in the 1980s, the three teams (Toronto, Ottawa and BC) rotated each year. Ottawa and BC faced each other during the late 1980s and the first half of the 1990s (the league had no team in Montreal at the time). The Tiger-Cats' hosting of the Labour Day Classic was in jeopardy for 2013 due to a schedule conflict at the team's home stadium. Because Ivor Wynne Stadium was demolished to make way for the new Tim Hortons Field, the team played out of Alumni Stadium in Guelph. The University of Guelph Gryphons (along with most Ontario University Athletics teams) were playing that same day, so the Tiger-Cats could not host the game, resulting in the first time they could not host a Labour Day game since 1995.〔(Mark Your Calendars: 2013 CFL Schedule announced )〕 This was only the second time in franchise history that the Tiger-Cats did not host a game on Labour Day (the other being 1995) and the first time that they did not host a game on that weekend. To make up for it, the Toronto at Hamilton matchup was played in the Thanksgiving Day Classic. Some of the teams wear special third jerseys or throwback uniforms if they play at home. Although not associated with the Labour Day Classic, the week after Labour Day often has a repeat match-up of the Bombers vs Roughriders (see Banjo Bowl), Stampeders vs Eskimos (see Battle of Alberta), and Tiger-Cats vs Argonauts, (a rivalry which began in 1873) with home field advantage now to the team that did not have it during the Labour Day weekend. Since the suspension of the Renegades in 2006, this has occurred every year except 2006, 2008, and 2010. As the league has been increasing in popularity in recent years, print ads for the Labour Day Classic try to evoke the tradition of watching Canadian football on the last weekend of summer. Slogans include "Long Live the Rivalries" and "Watch the Team You Love Play the Team You Love to Hate". The rivalries between these pairings are long-standing, based on both the physical proximity of the competing cities and the relatively small number of teams within a league that has existed for so long. Fans of each team regularly claim their matchup to be ''the'' Labour Day Classic, as if there were only one game. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Labour Day Classic」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|